Brunswick needs a new school sooner rather than later

I am voting yes for the new school on June 13. Brunswick desperately needs a new facility for its youngest students. Coffin doesn’t meet code for structural integrity, handicap accessibility, plumbing, or electrical. The walls contain asbestos, making these issues astronomically expensive to address. Moreover, the school is so crowded that instruction is now taking place in bathrooms and closets. That’s after most of the second-graders were pushed over to the grade 3-5 school (Harriet Beecher Stowe, also over capacity). Funds for a public pre-K program, which would save Brunswick considerable money in remedial education later, are left unused because there is no physical place to put a pre-K program.

Brunswick would be foolish to hope for state funds for another building, having been a recent recipient with HBS. And even if Augusta said yes, they move slowly, sometimes taking up to a decade or more. We need a new school now.